December?

It's been unseasonably warm here. It's weird. We finally started our holiday prep but it doesn't really feel right. 

Anyhow. On Saturday, we went to our annual tree lot to pick out a tree. It was about 60 degrees and sunny. Jackets and coats weren't needed. Strange.

After getting the tree loaded up, I gave the boys a choice. They could go see the Santa in Old Town, let me take their picture with the dancing Santa at the tree lot, or let me take a picture of them with the inflatable Santa at the tree lot. Here's what they chose:

Micah was not pleased with his brothers' horseplay, but I love their smiles in this one. :) (Don't worry. I also got a picture with all three of them smiling.)

Sunday, then, we finally put up our outside lights. Again, it was warm. I set the older two to wrapping the trees:

Micah helped Nathan with the lights along the fence and around the door. Then, Asher, Micah and I helped Nathan put the lights up over the garage and along the gutters...with Asher up on a ladder...

...because this is how Micah feels about ladders:

:)

We'll wait and put out our inflatables next weekend so that they're not out quite as long. 

So, that's that. We'll decorate the tree tonight or tomorrow now that it's set up in the front room. Got the New Year's cards ordered, almost done with our shopping, all that good stuff. Noah's last finals are tomorrow and the younger two and I have one more week of homeschooling before we take our winter break. Before Christmas, we also have the First Lego League state tournament (and a couple more team meetings before that), another JOAD tournament, four appointments for boys (hair and eyes and such), a demo team performance and get together, a couple dates with friends for me, a couple date nights for Nathan and me, and looking for a second vehicle so that we can get to all those things easier. Whew.

(In the meantime, I'm realizing a couple things...1) For all that Nathan sometimes talks about wintering some place warmer once boys are older, I don't think that will work for me. It just wouldn't feel like Christmas, lol...and 2) I must remember that putting up the tree in the front room always messes with my homeschooling--as now I need to reorganize everything or wait another week before pulling out the decorations. Note to self: move all the homeschooling stuff over Thanksgiving break so that it doesn't get interrupted when we get the decorations out.)